The Diamond Affair (7 page)

"Maybe they
don't talk to each other much."

"Nothing
unusual about that," he said darkly.

"What do you
mean?"

"Families. Conversations
are usually rare in my experience. Civil ones anyway."

She blinked at
him. Did he truly believe that? But there was no expression on his face that
gave away his thoughts. There was no expression at all. He was all hard angles,
a brick wall with a barbed wire fence surrounding it.

"Your
experience with families is obviously very different from mine," she said.

A heartbeat
passed before he said, "Probably." He reached inside his pocket and
pulled out a black leather diary. "Unfortunately I didn't get left alone
upstairs so I couldn't get anything off the computers. But I did manage to take
this when Sonya wasn't looking."

"You mean
she took her eyes off you long enough?"

He flipped open
the diary and read a few pages. "She has a manicure appointment today at
three. There are no addresses or phone numbers kept in here."

"Maybe you
should have tried to get her phone. That would be where all her contacts are."

He tossed the
book at her and she just managed to catch it. "Thanks for the tip, I'll
remember that next time."

"That was
sarcasm, right? And what ‘next time'?"

"I plan on
going in again while this gas leak story still holds."

"Great,"
she said. "I think I'll sit it out."

"My thoughts
exactly. One thing I did learn. Beauvoir told his wife about the Florentine. So
that's one person we know who's aware of it."

"I don't
think his daughter knows," Ruby said. "He didn't mention it to her
when she asked what was wrong."

Jake nodded. "That
narrows it down. Now all we need to find out is who Beauvoir or his wife might
have told."

The bugging
equipment crackled again and a voice came through the speakers. Beauvoir's. "I'll
get it back," he said in a hushed whisper. "Don't worry." There
was silence and then he added, "The diamond will be in my possession again
before our meeting on Monday, you can count on it." More silence. "Harry—.
Harry—." A sigh as he listened to whoever was on the end of the line. "Whatever
you do, don't let onto your client about this minor problem. The sale will
still go ahead as scheduled on Monday."

Ruby and Jake
exchanged glances. Sale?

Silence greeted
them once more from the equipment. Beauvoir had hung up.

"He was
going to resell it all along," Jake said. He rubbed a hand over his five o'clock
shadow. "And his wife wasn't aware of the fact. She mentioned having it
made into a necklace."

"That would
make one very angry wife if she found out he never planned to keep it."

"Adds up to
a good reason to steal it."

Ruby, sitting
sideways in the front seat so she could see Jake in the back, leaned against
her door. "Harry." She frowned.

"You know
him?" Jake put the case aside, climbed out of the car then back into the
driver's seat.

"Possibly. There's
a dealer called Harry Sinestri. He's a major distributor of precious stones
here in Melbourne. He imports a lot of raw gems, has them cut and polished by
his jewelers then resells them."

"Doesn't
sound all that lucrative. The markup can't be that high on resale, surely?"

"It's not. But
rumor is, he has some shady contacts in the African diamond mines and he gets
the gems cheaply. It's an incredibly volatile area politically."

Jake nodded. "Several
mates of mine and Matt's now do security for some of those mining companies. The
pay is good, the life expectancy lousy. Don't see the difference between
working there and doing a tour in Afghanistan personally."

Ruby hugged
herself, suddenly feeling cold.
Matt
. If he didn't come home safely... If
anything happened to him...

"Hey, sorry,
I wasn't thinking." Jake leaned over and took her hands in his own big
ones. His thumbs rubbed her knuckles, the movement soothing in one way but
disturbing in another. Disturbing in the way it distracted her, made her want
that touch all over her body, made her want Jake. And he'd made it clear he
didn't want to be wanted by her.

"If anyone
will be safe it'll be Matt," he went on, apparently unaware of the turmoil
he'd stirred up inside her. "He has a knack for keeping his nose out of
trouble. I think it has something to do with his boyish charm and the amount of
favors everyone else owes him."

She managed a
watery smile. "Why do you owe him a favor? It must be a big one for you to
go to all this trouble."

He removed his
hands but the desire still coiled through her, taking hold of her insides and
tying them up in knots. "That's between me and Matt."

"Does it
have anything to do with you quitting and coming back to Australia on a
permanent basis?"

He started up the
car. "You're just like your brother," he muttered.

"Intelligent?
Good looking?"

"Nosy."

"In that
case, you won't be surprised if I ask you where we're going now."

"And you won't
be surprised if I tell you I'm taking you back to my place."

No, she wasn't
surprised. Nor did she mind. The further she was from Beauvoir the better. "Then
what?"

"Then we
look up the address for your mutual pal, Harry Sinestri, and I pay him a visit."

"A visit? Is
that code for breaking and entering?"

"You catch
on quick."

"Another
disguise?"

"Not this
time. I'm going to wait until tonight then I'll break into his office. You got
the address?"

"It's in my
phone. But I don't get it. Why would Sinestri steal the Florentine from Beauvoir
when he was going to broker a deal with another buyer?"

"To sell it
to someone else for more. To sell it to the same buyer, anonymously, for more."
He shrugged. "There could be all sorts of reasons for an inventive man."

"And
Sinestri is nothing if not inventive." She shook her head, disbelieving. "I
always suspected he was dealing on the black market, but I couldn't be sure. I'm
out of the loop when it comes to things like that."

"I'm not
surprised."

"What's that
supposed to mean?"

They stopped at
traffic lights and he looked across at her. "Don't get all huffy on me. It
simply means that you're not the sort of girl who gets mixed up in this kind of
thing. You're a good person, Ruby. Good people don't know what happens in the
underworld. It's a whole other life down there."

"You hardly
know me. What makes you think I'm not head of the local mafia branch?"

He laughed. Actually
threw his head back and laughed. It was contagious and despite her irritation,
Ruby found herself smiling.

"The fact
that you came to me in the first place," he finally said when he'd calmed
down. "And the fact I know Matt like a brother. You're a lot like him."

"You think
of me as a brother?"

He grinned. "Now
you're pushing it. What I meant is that he's one of the good guys too." He
concentrated on the road for a while. "Honest. Loyal." He spoke
quietly, a hint of sadness touching his mouth which only moments ago had been
laughing. "He thinks in terms of black and white, good and evil."

"And you see
the gray?"

"Something
like that."

They traveled in
silence until they reached the underground parking lot at his apartment block. They
caught the elevator and Jake hit the buttons for both the twenty-first and
ground floors.

"There's
nothing to eat at my place and I'm starving. There's a little deli not far from
here that sells fresh produce. I'll buy enough for lunch and dinner tonight."

Ruby's stomach growled
at the mention of food. It was mid-afternoon and neither had eaten anything
since breakfast. "Why don't we just go to a café?"

He hesitated a
beat. "I'd feel happier if you stayed out of the public eye."

"It didn't
bother you last night when we met at the pub."

"I didn't
know what you'd got yourself into last night."

The elevator
doors slid open at the ground floor and he stood, half in, half out with his
hand pressed against the doors to stop them closing. "You head on up."
He dangled the apartment keys from one finger and she took them. Then he let go
of the doors and they closed.

Up in his
apartment, Ruby found a box marked "kitchen" and opened it. She
unpacked two plates, glasses and cutlery and set them out on the table. Then
she changed out of her business clothes and into knee-length yoga pants and a
tank top. She washed her face, tied up her hair and moved the coffee table in
the lounge room to one side so she could sit on the rug laid over the
floorboards. She stretched and did a few standard yoga moves to loosen up. After
ten minutes she felt better, clearer. She was about to do some more complicated
moves when the doorbell rang. She peeped through the spy hole. Jake waved at
her and she opened the door.

His hooded gaze
immediately slipped down her body, lingering on the curves accentuated by her
tight-fitting outfit. "You got changed," he said huskily.

"This is
more comfortable."

"Right."
He pushed past her and hefted two shopping bags onto the bench. "I didn't
know what you'd like so I got a bit of everything." He proceeded to
assemble a platter of salad greens, cold meats and other foods while Ruby buttered
the bread.

They sat at the
small table and ate. The silence was broken only by munching but it wasn't
uncomfortable. In fact, she was surprised at how comfortable she felt with Jake
in such a domestic situation. He also seemed unfazed at having to share his
personal space with a virtual stranger.

"So did my
brother annoy the hell out of you with his practical jokes when you were on
tour with him?"

Jake chuckled. "He
had his moments. But I'm sure you know what he's like. Big brothers aren't
always kinds to little sisters."

"Speaking
from experience?"

He shook his
head. "Not this time. No siblings."

She'd guessed
that. He had ‘loner' stamped all over him. "Parents?"

"Those I had.
Two of them."

She gave him what
she hoped was a withering look then she realized what he'd said. "Had?"

"My mother
died a few years ago."

"And your
father?"

He stabbed a
piece of ham with his fork. "He's still around."

"Here in
Melbourne?"

He nodded. "He
had a stroke last month and has been in a rehabilitation center ever since. The
doctors aren't sure he'll ever leave."

And yet he'd hung
up on his father earlier. Hardly the sort of thing a good son did to a loving
father. "Bad time to move to Sydney." The words just slipped out. It
was none of her business why he was moving interstate, away from his closest
relative.

She regretted
saying it as soon as his face closed up. He'd been open with her up till then,
discussing something she'd guessed was sensitive, but now she'd gone too far. The
lines around his mouth flattened and a muscle in his jaw twitched. She wasn't
going to get any more out of him.

"I'm sorry,"
she said. "It's not my business."

"Like I
said, you're just like your brother. Nosy."

She laughed. At
least he wasn't too mad at her.

But the
comfortable atmosphere had evaporated. Jake stood, collected the plates then
headed out, back to the Beauvoir residence.

Ruby spent the
next two hours worrying. When she wasn't worrying, she was trying to find out
more about Jake Forrester by going through the few open boxes. They contained
very little that couldn't be found in everyone's packing boxes—sheets, towels,
unmatched dinner set.

Did that make her
nosy? Definitely. She'd always been curious about people, but the mystery
surrounding this man drove her nuts. She wanted to know everything about him—what
he liked to drink on a night out, what he liked to do on his days off, who was
his favorite superhero when he was a boy, what he wore to bed.

She'd lay money
on him sleeping naked.

The two hours dragged
but he finally returned. In one piece. For the first time in two hours, Ruby
felt like she could breathe again. "Well?" she said. "Any luck?"

"Only the housekeeper
was home and she was too busy to follow me around." He pulled out two
memory sticks from his shirt pocket. "The contents of two computers are on
these. Unfortunately I only have one laptop so we'll have to go through one at
a time."

He powered up the
laptop and sat on the couch, the computer on his knees. Ruby sat next to him,
leaning in to see the screen. At first, only their arms touched. His muscled
one against her lean one. But as they looked through file after boring file
taken from Guy Beauvoir's home computer, their knees touched. Then their hips,
their thighs. He was warm and solid and smelled faintly of the cologne he'd splashed
on that morning. She didn't mind nestling into him, like two lovers on the
couch. It made her feel safe.